Ada 2012 language standard gets ISO approval

PARIS – The latest version of the ADA programming language has received the approval of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The Ada Resource Association (ARA) and Ada-Europe said Ada 2012 brings enhancements in the area of contract-based programming. Among other features, Ada 2012 adds the ability to specify preconditions and postconditions for subprograms, and invariants for private (encapsulated) types.

Ada 2012 also includes enhancements to the containers library, additional expressiveness through features such as conditional expressions and more powerful iterators, and support for multicore platforms.

Commenting on the language revision, Dr. Edmond Schonberg, Rapporteur of the ARG, declared: “The new features answer real user needs, and help cement Ada’s reputation as a language of choice for systems where reliability, safety, and security are paramount.”

The language revision was under the auspices of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG9 and was conducted by the Ada Rapporteur Group subunit of WG9, with sponsorship in part from the ARA and Ada-Europe. The formal approval of the standard was issued on Nov. 20 by ISO/IEC JTC 1, and the standard was published on December 15.